The idea of an invisibility cloak has been a futuristic dream of many. That technology is now here! Below I briefly detail the design for such a product and explore opportunities to improve upon the model!
The Skinny
The basic concept of this invisibility cloak is to have a screen with backwards curving ‘infinity’ edges. Behind the screen will be high resolution, high refresh-rate cameras looking at what is behind the screen and projecting it forward.
For the best results, an AI model can be implemented to adjust the perspective appropriately. For example, if the lens is is 8 cm from the screen’s displaying face, the model should digest the image and project what 8 cm from that position would look like.
Another consideration is brightness. Even if the image is perfect, a screen that does not have the perfect brightness fit, wouldn’t blend well. To account for this, the cameras are also evaluating the brightness of the area around the device to show the proper visual representation and blend into the surroundings. A basic model for this screen with ‘infinity’ edges is below:
The technology for this ‘infinity’ edge screen already exists as we see in some foldable mobile devices:
Improvements
This idea can be expanded further in many ways. A few that came to mind were:
- 360 Screen
- If the screen were able to fully wrap around an individual, it may provide more useful cloaking, depending on the need.
- Spherical Cloaking
- The 360 idea above is easy to imagine, but it would be vulnerable from the top. It may be possible to turn this into a dome or sphere if looking to avoid aerial recognition.
- Front-Facing Light Detection
- In the original idea, a flashlight shining directly at the screen would leave a dark shadow behind it, causing the screen to show black. A front-facing light detector should be used to determine the appropriate brightness of the screen.
- Self-Cleaning
- A high resolution screen is great… until it is covered in debris. Dirt and grass outdoors could make implementation challenging if there is no self cleaning functionality. I imagine this to be more useful indoors and looking around corners either way.
- Personalized Vision
- We now have the technology for different people to see different things on the same screen at the same time. This technology can be taken advantage of to project a vision into the eyes of the viewer at the appropriate angle.
Check out other ideas here!
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